The Development of a Remote Sensor System and Decision Support Systems Architecture to Monitor Resistance Development in Transgenic Crops

Institute for Technology Development, USAThe United States Environmental Protection Agency (E PA) has declared that “significant benefits accrue to growers, thepublic, and the environment” from the use of transgenic pesticid al crops due to reductions in pesticide usage for crop pestmanagement. Large increases in the global use of transgenic pesticidal crops has reduced the amounts of broad spectrumpesticides used to manage pest populations, improved yield and reduced the en vironmental impact of crop management. Asignificant threat to the continued use of this technology is the evolution of resistance in insect pest populations to theinsecticidal Bt toxins expressed by the plants. Management of transgenic pesticidal crops w ith an emphasis on conservationof Bt toxicity in field populations of insect pests is important to the future of sustainable agriculture. A vital component ofthis transgenic pesticidal crop management is establishing the proof of concept basic understanding, situational awareness,and monitoring and decision support system tools for more than 133650 square kilometers (33 million acres) ofbio-engineered corn and cotton for development of insect resistance . Early and recent joint NASA, US EPA and ITDremote imagery flights and ground based field experiments have provided very promising research results that willpotentially address future requirements for crop management capabilities.Key Words: Genetically Modified Crops; Decision Support System; Remote Sensing;Pest Infestation; Ecosystem